Disgusting: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell wants UAV drones to spy on citizens.

Washington, DC - Police drones flying over Virginia would be "great" and "the right thing to do" for the same reasons they are so effective in a battlefield environment, the state's chief executive said Tuesday. 

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, says he is open to any technology that makes law enforcement more productive. The use of drones, which was recently endorsed by the police chiefs of Fairfax County and D.C., would make better use of valuable police resources. 

Increased safety and reduced manpower are among the reasons the U.S. military and intelligence community use drones on the battlefield, which is why it should be considered in Virginia, he says.
"It's great," he said while speaking on WTOP's "Ask the Governor" program. "If you're keeping police officers safe, making it more productive and saving money...it's absolutely the right thing to do."

David Rohrer, chief of police for Fairfax County, said: "Drones will certainly have a purpose and a reason to be in this region in the next, coming years," he told WTOP. "Just as a standpoint as an alternative for spotting traffic and sending information back to our VDOT Smart Traffic centers, and being able to observe backups."

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier, a national security expert, told WTOP in early May that the use of drones is ideal for "a sprawling county" such as Fairfax.

McDonnell's claim of “saving money” makes very little sense whatsoever. This may be true over a period of several years, or perhaps even a decade or more, but since almost all counties are struggling to get by as is, I seriously doubt that this massive start up cost is something worth absorbing.

That is, unless, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chooses to give out some of their massive grants to subsidize the move towards drones or if they begin being given away under the Pentagon’s 1033 program.

Seeing as the Department of Defense is now distributing military robots and heavily armored vehicles under the program, that wouldn’t be all too surprising.

“Drones will certainly have a purpose and a reason to be in this region in the next, coming years,” Fairfax County Police Chief David Rohrer said. “Just as a standpoint as an alternative for spotting traffic and sending information back to our VDOT Smart Traffic centers, and being able to observe backups.”

Seems to be a little expensive to just serve for spotting traffic and observing backups but maybe I’m the only one who thinks our governments at the local, state and federal level are engaging in completely out of control spending.
http://www.wtop.com/120/2882193/Governor-Drones-over-Va-great-right-thing-to-do

 http://EndtheLie.com/2012/06/01/va-governor-cites-warzone-drone-success-says-domestic-use-would-be-great/#ixzz1wXi2kCU7

Dept. of Defense Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) airspace integration plan.

Over the past several years, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have become a transformational force multiplier for the Department of Defense (DoD). When UAS were introduced into the front-line DoD aircraft force structure over a decade ago, small numbers of aircraft were fulfilling niche capabilities. This is no longer the case. The numbers and roles of UAS have expanded dramatically to meet overseas demands, and in some categories, more unmanned aircraft (UA) are budgeted than manned. Operational commanders have come to rely upon robust and persistent support based on unmanned platforms to execute their core missions against hostile forces.

While reliance on UAS continues to grow, the ability to integrate UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS) to support operations, training, and testing has not kept pace. Routine access to exercise and execute Combatant Command (COCOM)-tasked missions, and to support broader military and civil missions such as Homeland Security (HLS), Homeland Defense (HD), and Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) is necessary. Current NAS access for UAS is greatly limited under interim FAA policies that govern UAS operations in the NAS. Currently, DoD UAS operations conducted outside of Restricted, Warning and Prohibited areas are authorized under a temporary Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA) from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or under limited conditions outlined in the 2007 DoD-FAA Memorandum of Agreement (MoA). Although DoD has been able to facilitate a small number of flights through the COA process, DoD has not been able to obtain the level of airspace access necessary to accomplish the wide range of DoD UAS missions at current and projected operational tempos.
http://info.publicintelligence.net/DoD-UAS-AirspaceIntegration.pdf

Joint Advanced Warfighting school thesis on problems integrating Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the national airspace system.

In the last 10 years, the unmanned aircraft system (UAS) has captured the public’s imagination and fascination with their ability to provide instantaneous video feeds of military and covert CIA operations in far away places like Afghanistan and Iraq.

The rapid proliferation of the UAS and the eventual redeployment of current systems deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq will require the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to provide unrestricted unmanned aircraft access within the National Airspace System (NAS). The Department of Defense (DoD) requires routine access to the NAS to execute directed missions, meet training requirements, and perform necessary testing to meet the Joint Force Commander’s (JFC’s) established mission priorities. Over the past several years, the DoD has been able to execute a small portion of UAS flights in the NAS but current rules and regulation do not facilitate seamless integration with manned aircraft.

The purpose of this study is to show that although the DoD and the FAA recognize the importance of integrating manned and unmanned aircraft within the NAS, there are many challenges and gaps that must be bridged to facilitate successful integration. The most important challenge to overcome when integrating manned and unmanned aircraft into the same airspace is safety.
http://info.publicintelligence.net/NDU-UAS-Integration.pdf

NASA unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) project.

https://info.publicintelligence.net/NASA-UAS-NAS.pdf